Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born: February 2, 1977 42), known mononymously as Shakira, is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, producer, businesswoman, philanthropist, actress and model. She started making music at the age of eight when she wrote a tribute song to her older half-brother, who was killed in a motorcycle accident when she was 2. She was inspired to be a musician and performer after watching an Arabian performance at a local Middle Eastern restaurant. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and sold more than 75 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists of all time and one of the world's best-selling Latin American musicians of all time. Early Life Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll was born in Barranquilla, Colombia on February 2, 1977 to a father from New York City of Lebanese descent and mother from Arenosa, Colombia of Spanish (Catalan, Basque, Andalusian, Aragonese, Cantabrian, Galician and Castilian) and Italian descent. She has stated that one of her maternal ancestors with the surname Pisciotti came from Sicily and she also has some Indigenous Colombian and African ancestry from her mother's side. Her father, named William Alberto Mebarak Chadid, emigrated to Colombia when he was five years old. "Shakira" means "grateful" in Arabic, the feminine form of the name Shakir. Her dad took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant when she was four years old, where she first heard the doumbek, a drum that is traditionally used in Arabic music that typically accompanied belly dancing. Why She Rocks # Her dance performances are awesome to look at and pay tribute to her Arabic ancestry. # She has produced a lot of catchy songs such as "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)", "Chantaje", "Hips Don't Lie" and "Try Everything". # Her performance as Gazelle in Zootopia is awe-inspiring and awesome and her singing performance is equally awesome too! #* She even provided the Spanish dubs for Gazelle personally. #* In fact, just like how Ben Diskin embraced his character Haida from Aggretsuko as his fursona thanks to his newly-found fame amongst the furry community, Shakira happily embraced Gazelle as her fursona too and happily performed Try Everything in a lot of her live performances. # She is active in philanthropy and social activism through her non-profit Barefoot Foundation (Pies Descalzos Foundation in Spanish), which aims to provide education to all Colombian children. It has five schools across Colombia that provide education and meals for 4,000 children. #* She is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and one of the organisation's global representatives. # She uses extremely little to no autotune at all in all of her songs. # She respects her fans a lot and can take criticism. # She has collaborated with established artists like Rihanna and Beyonce. # Some of her songs are so good that they are consistently in the top spots for "Top (insert number here) Most-Viewed (insert genre here) Music Videos Of All Time". Bad Qualities # Some of her later songs like "La Bicicleta" and "Trap" aren't very good. # Her first 2 albums were commercial flops. # She hasn't released any new materials since 2018, owing to vocal cord surgery and family duties with her partner, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué. # Charged with tax evasion. Category:Artists Category:Roc Nation artists Category:Foreign-language Category:Pop Category:Dance-pop Category:1990s Category:2000s Category:2010s Category:Actors Category:Shakira Category:Latin Pop Category:Artists Who Can Take Criticism Category:Artists with Common Sense Category:1977 Births